"When in my 20s, I equated hope with "sunny-side-of-the-street" wishful thinking-what we now call " toxic positivity." I was wrong. I live, work, and lead these days with a new kind of grounded hope. Many thoughtful, intelligent people today are sliding toward cynicism. But recent research shows something surprising about the nature of hope in the face of cynicism. I want to share research conducted on cynical college students-and how that research shifted the outlook even of the chief researcher."
"From Doomscrolling to Hopeful Skepticism By day, Stanford psychologist Jamil Zaki studied and promoted human empathy and other good qualities in human beings. But at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was doomscrolling. A bit "cut off" with a skewed sense of the full spectrum of reality and of humanity, he says he started letting his distrustful, cynical self take over his thinking."
Research shows most people underestimate others' empathy, fueling unnecessary cynicism and undermining trust. Regular negative news consumption and doomscrolling skew perceptions of humanity and amplify distrust. Stanford psychologist Jamil Zaki returned to a stance he calls "hopeful skepticism" after confronting personal loss and pandemic-era doomscrolling. He defines hope as "the belief that a better future is possible through our actions." Experiments with cynical college students demonstrate that tracking and sharing accurate social evidence of care can correct distorted assumptions. Leaders who model hopeful skepticism can increase trust, strengthen collaboration, and improve morale in groups.
Read at Psychology Today
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